Ethical Consumption

The most effective campaigns to encourage ethical consumption are those that take place at a collective level rather than those that target individual behaviour, a new study finds. The research suggests that ethical consumption is best understood as a political phenomenon rather than simply a market response to consumer demand. People bring a wide range of ethical concerns to their everyday consumption practices, from the personal responsibilities of family life to more public commitments like membership of a faith community or political affiliation. The research team found that campaigns aimed at getting people to change what they buy often worked on the assumption that individuals lack the necessary information to make educated decisions about the consequences of what they buy and where they buy it from. However the findings from the study suggest that people don’t necessarily lack the information about fair trade, organic food, environmental sustainability, or third world sweatshops; they lack effective pathways to acting on their concerns over these issues.In order to successfully encourage people to adopt ethical consumption activities, it is important to call on their specific identities, as for example a member of the local community or faith group, rather than just targeting them as ‘faceless’ and ‘placeless’ consumers. The most successful initiatives are those that find ways of making changes to the practical routines of consumption. The research findings present a clear message says Dr Barnett of the study, “If ethical consumption campaigns are to succeed they need to transform the infrastructures of every day consumption rather than focusing on changing individual consumer behaviour”.